Our comrade and friend Noé Arteaga Santos has struggled for almost 7 years to get justice from Savoura, his former employer. Savoura is a Quebec-based tomato producer which relies on the labour of temporary migrant workers.

Noé came to Quebec in 2008 under the Temporary Foreign Workers programme, to work picking tomatoes for Savoura. After Noé participated in the organization of a very short strike to demand that a sick co-worker receive medical care, Savoura abruptly fired him. Noé was then forced to return to Guatemala.

Returning to Canada, Noé brought a human rights complaint against Savoura. More than six years later, the tribunal decided in his favour: Savoura fired Noé without just and sufficient cause. Moreover, Savoura contravened articles 10 and 16 of the Charter of rights and freedoms, discriminating against its workers on the basis of their ethnic origin and language (read the entire decision here: http://canlii.ca/t/gfqbm).

This constitutes a huge victory, not only for Noé but for all temporary migrant workers and all farm workers, almost invisible in our society. Working in precarious conditions, often exploited by their employers, they provide us with food.

However, in spring 2015, before an agreement on compensation for Noé was reached, Savoura declared bankruptcy. However, the Savoura label continues.

We are launching a compaign in solidarity with Noé and all temporary migrant workers, to demand that Savoura and the Quebec Minister of Labour, Sam Hamad, assume their responsibilities in this affair and that they end the exploitation of migrant workers.